Under the sea
by aLoggedInReader
Summary: Life could be so good, if it weren't for the facts that Dean was born in the wrong species, Sam was making friends with his potential food, Castiel took everything far too literally and Gabriel was... well, Gabriel. It's a sea animals AU and a crack fic. Rated T for language. Destiel and Sabriel. Written for a request by Tendencia. Hope you enjoy!
1. Chapter 1

**Author's note:** This was written for Tendencia who wanted to see seahorse Dean and dolphin Sam. Hope you like it, hun. :-D

There will be a second and possibly third chapter to this, too. Enjoy!**  
**

* * *

**1**

"Sammy," Dean called to his brother in a hushed tone, "Hey, Sammy. Is she gone?"

"Yeah, Lisa is gone," Sam replied, shaking his head slightly, "I thought you liked her?"

At those words the seahorse let go of the seaweed he had been holding onto with his tail before and let himself drift closer to his brother. That was one bullet he had successfully dodged!

"I do… I did… but that was before I knew that I'd have to carry our future children," Dean explained and snorted, "So not gonna happen, dude!"

Because really, he wouldn't be tied down like this and he simply wasn't father-material to begin with. Sure, he liked little seahorses, but he knew that he'd probably eat the buggers at the first signs of trouble. Alright, maybe he wouldn't exactly eat them, but he still didn't think he should be the one to care for a bunch of little lives. Hell, for all he knew he was just supposed to give birth to them and then let them go and do whatever… that just was by far too much responsibility! Not to mention the birth! Also, who said he'd get his marvelous body shape back after squeezing like a thousand new seahorses out. Besides, there was the birth! Who said that Lisa was going to be a good mother, anyway? And had he mentioned the birth, yet?

"Dean, you're a seahorse," Sam pointed out in an incredulous tone, "How did you not know that the males of your own species give birth to the baby seahorses?"

Hell, even he knew that and he wasn't the one who was flirting and dating like crazy! Not to mention that Sam wasn't even a seahorse and he knew how that worked. Why, yes. He was the younger brother of a seahorse without being a seahorse himself. It was a long and complicated story that boiled down to both of them being probably just a little insane, but they were acting more like brothers than most actual brothers were, so everyone who wanted to judge them could kindly go screw themselves!

"I never really thought about it, okay?" Dean hissed, glaring at his stupid younger brother, "Biology sucks, man."

Sam snickered, ignoring his brother's obvious annoyance. Hey, Dean was the one of them who always insisted that feelings were for females, so it wasn't like the dolphin could actually hurt his feelings, right?

"Yeah, it's easy for you to laugh," Dean muttered, poking his brother in the eye with his mouth which was the most effective thing he could do to the stupid dolphin, "Your species isn't the one that turns everything topsy-turvy!"

"I'm pretty sure male seahorses have been carrying the young for a long time. It's not like they suddenly decided to change the system just to screw with you," Sam shot back, moving one of his flippers quickly and sending his brother spinning with the sudden current he had produced.

"You're such a bitch!" Dean complained.

"I'm not the one who is able and meant to give birth," Sam went on snickering, because this once he was clearly the one who had the upper hand here. It wasn't like that happened all too often.

Dean huffed and muttered something about 'stupid mammals' under his breath as he swam away as quickly as he could. As if to add insult to injury, the dolphin just had to turn around and give a few hard thrusts with his flippers which propelled the seahorse away from him much faster than simple swimming would have done. At least, he didn't have to hear his stupid snickering much longer that way.

It didn't take long for Dean to find a good spot among the corals where he could wrap his tail around a little ledge in the reef and just let his body sway gently with the current to forget everything about stupid brothers and stupid biological facts. If it were for him, he'd have been a dolphin like Sammy, anyway. If they were the same species, he'd be stronger, faster and most of all bigger than the bitch too, he was sure.

"I require your assistance," a deep, but rather monotone voice suddenly broke through Dean's dreams about what ifs.

"Sure you do," Dean snarked, "And you're so fucking polite about it that I'll gladly tell you to f…"  
He had meant to tell the fish to fuck off, but before he had been able to get the words out the angelfish had swum around to face him and Dean immediately forgot what he had wanted to say.

The seahorse had seen angelfish before, but it had never struck him just how blue their stripes could be. Yeah, the yellow was nice too, but this one really stood out because of the vibrant blue that Dean was sure a lot of other emperor angelfish would be damn jealous of. The thought that he wouldn't have to worry about giving birth to anything, if he just abandoned female seahorses in favor of other species – let's say angelfish, for the sake of example – was suddenly on the forefront of the seahorse's mind.

"I'll gladly give you all the help you need," Dean finished in a much flirtier tone than he had started speaking in. He hadn't noticed just how close the fish was to him, definitely closer than most fish would think was appropriate, but it wasn't like he was complaining. That meant he didn't need to go to the trouble of releasing his grip on the ledge and find something else to hold onto, if he wanted to float closer to the stranger.

"I appreciate it," the angelfish spoke, staring at the seahorse like he thought Dean might disappear the second he didn't fix him with his eyes, "I seem to have lost my way. I was told to go jump in a lake, but I have been unable to locate any lakes."

Okay, so the fish Dean had a rather unexplainable and sudden crush on was a bit of an idiot. Oh well, he still was pretty!

"Alright, dude," Dean replied, bobbing his head thoughtfully, "How about you start with telling me your name and then you should tell good old Dean all about the mean people who sent you on that quest."

The seahorse let himself drift a little closer to the fish, until his side flippers were basically touching him and made his best 'I'm listening' face. It wasn't that easy to make faces when you were a seahorse, though. Oh well, it wasn't like the angelfish was much better with facial expressions!

"My name is Castiel and my brothers made the demand that I jump in a lake when I questioned the logic behind going to war with the other angelfish over a territory neither us nor them intend to inhabit," Castiel explained, letting the seahorse basically rub against him without finding anything odd about it, "As I understand it, I will be allowed back with the colony as soon as I fulfill that task."

Dean shook his head sadly. He didn't exactly like to take those hopes from the poor, naïve angelfish, but at least he could give him a good alternative to the quest he was currently on.

"Look, Cas," the seahorse started to explain, "You got that wrong, dude. Them telling you to jump in a lake means they want you out of their sight, probably permanently. I mean, come on, you must have thought of that possibility before. Uhm… angelfish aren't exactly made for lakes, right?"

He bumped his head against Castiel's side before he spoke on in a more cheery tone, "But I know just the right colony for you. Well, it's just me and my brother, but we're totally open-minded and you would fit right in!"

As good as anyone could fit in with a seahorse and a dolphin, that was. Not to mention the old turtle called Bobby that was hanging around with them sometimes, too.

The angelfish let the other male convince him easily enough. In fact, the thought that maybe his brothers had just wanted to get rid of him had crossed his mind before, but it had been easier to focus on a task than to accept that he didn't have any orders to follow anymore.

"Sammy will love you. He's really nice when he isn't being a total bitch, you'll see," Dean babbled on as he slowly swam back toward their part of the reef. It wasn't his fault that he was a bad swimmer, dammit! He was a seahorse, he was much better at floating and holding on to things. Ha! None of the stupid fish could do that like he could! Their flippers weren't made for holding on to things. 1:0 for Dean!

"Heya Sam!" the seahorse yelled as soon as he spotted his dolphin brother in the distance, "Look what I found!"

He could tell that his brother was trying to approach them slowly, but that wasn't quite so easy for a dolphin, especially not an overgrown one like Sam. Castiel didn't look scared, anyway. He looked baffled, but he had looked somewhat baffled ever since Dean had first laid eyes on him. Baffled and damn cute and oh so pretty, not that he'd say that out loud when his brother was close enough to hear it.

"That's Castiel, he's going to stick around for a while, or longer," Dean informed the dolphin as soon as he had stopped in front of them, "Cas, meet my brother Sam. Uh… brother of another mother, obviously."

"You two share the same father?" Castiel asked in a tone that sounded so serious that it was impossible to tell if he was joking or not. Then again, the angelfish had taken 'Go jump in a lake!' as an order that should be followed literally.

"Uh… no… different fathers, too," Dean admitted, looking at his brother for help with the explanation, but receiving none, "We're more like… related in spirit. Know what, Cas? Just roll with it. Sammy is my little brother and you're uh… my roomie."

Dean totally planned to show the angelfish the places he usually went to sleep, after all. Hell, he planned way more than that, but he didn't have to put all his cards on the table from the first second on, did he?

"I would like to be your roommate, Dean," Castiel replied seriously. Really, the guy said everything seriously, but it fit him very well, so that was okay. Also, Dean had a crush on him, so he could do whatever the fuck he wanted as long as he kept looking as cute as he did doing it.

"Awesome," the seahorse beamed, starting to swim toward his favorite part of the reef, "I'll show you around!"

Sam watched as his brother and the new one made their way over to where Dean liked to hang out the most. The part of the reef with the most plants was ideal for the seahorse and the angelfish shouldn't have problems navigating through them without doing much damage to them, either. The dolphin was really happy for his adoptive brother, but he couldn't help fearing that he would have more time to spend on his own from now on.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's note: **Thanks so much to Larkafree, Maknatuna, Tendencia, Impala67-Ilana, Mello18, midnight0211, Keefer, kb18142, Maddy Love Castiel and AngelicZombieCat for last chapter's reviews!

Okay... I guess there will be a third chapter, after all... I just couldn't end it. *lol***  
**

* * *

**2**

Sam just had to get away from the horndogs that were his brother and his brother's roommate for a while. Who would have thought that a seahorse and an angelfish could get this… dirty!

To think that a couple of days ago the dolphin had actually had some hopes that the two of them would have to keep everything in a strictly PG rated territory, because of the obvious anatomical differences, but no they had to figure out a way!

At least, they both were highly content and satisfied these days, but knowing where those feelings came from made Sam shudder again. Not to mention that he had been absolutely right when he had feared that Dean wouldn't have as much time to spend with him now that he had found the angelfish. Okay, he was happy for his brother. Dean hadn't had it any easier in life than Sam and really deserved to find some happiness, but the dolphin still felt a little jealous and lonely.

Sam had only just started to really get into his self-pity party when something orange scampered by him and moments later he heard a quiet, "Hey!"

"Huh?" the dolphin asked ineloquently, trying to turn around to see who was speaking to him, but he aborted the motion when the voice spoke again in a very urgent tone.

"Don't move! Just look ahead like you did before and act inconspicuous!" the fish hissed, "Okay, big guy, I think that should do."

"Do what?" Sam asked thoroughly confused, still looking straight ahead just in case. He had been instructed to do exactly that like it was a question of life and death just a minute earlier, after all.

"Thanks for letting me hide behind you, gigantor," the clownfish who came swimming into the dolphin's field of vision finally stated in a rather upbeat tone, "Those stupid clownfish were after me!"

The dolphin didn't quite know what to say to that. It was some sort of explanation he supposed, not that it made all too much sense to him. Well, a group of clownfish had passed him by earlier, so at least it seemed somewhat plausible that this one had been hiding from them.

"Uh… " Sam commented, because he got the feeling that the other male expected some reaction from him. He was lucky that any kind of reaction was good enough for the fish. He couldn't have thought of anything better to save his life. Not that a single clownfish could have ever posed a threat to his life, anyway.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Why would they do that? Do you want to know? Do you?" the clownfish babbled on swimming around in front of the dolphin's face until the bigger animal was nearly dizzy from looking at him all the time. It really seemed like the fish couldn't keep even remotely still for a second and apparently he had troubles keeping his mouth shut, too.

"I guess?" Sam replied doubtfully. He didn't care all too much and he wasn't sure if the story – whatever it was – would be enjoyable, but on the other hand he was pretty sure he couldn't stop the clownfish from sharing, anyway. How could his wallowing in self-pity turn into this insane talk with an insane fish so quickly?

"Too bad, I can't tell you, kiddo," the clownfish stated, "So, what's your name?"

The jerky motions the fish made weren't the only thing that made Sam feel like his head was spinning anymore. The guy couldn't stand still, keep quiet or stick to a topic for longer than a moment at a time and he didn't make sense when he spoke to top it all off.

"Sam," he finally answered and because he couldn't quite decide if he wanted the clownfish to stay or leave he added noncommittally, "You realize that dolphins usually eat fish like you."

Now it was up to the other animal if he wanted to stay or leave as quickly as possible. Sam would be strangely okay with both options. Sure, the other male was somewhat irritating, but the dolphin hadn't thought about his brother and his little romance with the angelfish the entire time.

"Yeah, but you look like the squid kinda guy," the clownfish pointed out, completely unfazed by the dolphin's comment, "Nice to meet you, Sammy. You can call me Loki… no, no, wait, better not. How about Steve? No? Bob? John? No, not John that's too boring. Uh… just call me…"

"How about your real name?" Sam interrupted the other male with a suggestion that he was sure the clownfish would think was unfathomable and outrageous.

"Really? You wanna call me Gabriel?" the fish asked and then cursed up a storm immediately after the words had left his mouth, "You weren't supposed to know that!"

At least, his real name fit the fish much better than any of the pseudonyms he had come up with. The dolphin also had to admit that he found the strange little thing quite amusing. He could swim away any second he felt the other male was getting too annoying, so that was okay.

"This day is getting better and better," the clownfish snarked.

Of course, as soon as the words left his mouth yelling could be heard and a group of clownfish came swimming their way. Apparently, they hadn't given up looking for him as quickly as he had wished they would have. Not to mention that they weren't quite as stupid as he had thought they were. Hiding behind a dolphin… oh well, it had sounded like a good idea at the time!

"Flee!" Gabriel yelled and swam as fast as he could, looking back for a moment to see if the dolphin was following him and what the other clownfish were doing.

Sam got so caught up in the little chase that it took him a while to even realize how nonsensical it was for him to try to get away from clownfish! Dammit, he was further up the food chain than they were!

The dolphin quickly turned around and opened his mouth as if he wanted to eat the first fish stupid enough to get even closer. Whatever they were after Gabriel for, it didn't look like they thought it was worth dying for. They turned tails and fled into the opposite direction in a hurry.

"Good work, Sambo," Gabriel laughed and bumped his side against the dolphin's, "We're a good team!"

Sam was about to point out that there had been no team work involved before he thought better of it and swam toward the part of the reef where he was staying with Dean and Castiel. Sure, Gabriel was amusing, but he had had enough of that for now and he had paid the clownfish back for lifting his mood by saving his life. That seemed like a fair trade for both sides!

The clownfish didn't dream of going his own ways, however. He followed the dolphin quietly for a short moment, but then started to babble, "Oh okay, big guy, because you're obviously dying to know…"

There was a heavy pause that was just long enough for Sam to wonder what exactly the other male was going on about.

"I am not really a clownfish and the other clownfish found out about that. I was in witness protection among them, you know?" Gabriel added, swimming zigzag next to the dolphin and sometimes swimming under him to show up again on the other side just to mess with him some more.

"That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard," Sam stated seriously. That really meant something, too. He was hanging out with Dean and Castiel a lot, after all. He wouldn't say that Castiel was the one saying the dumbest things, either. Dean's tries to explain things to his lover were often even worse than the angelfish's questions had been.

"You don't believe me?" Gabriel asked in a clearly hurt tone, "I am not a clownfish! Haven't always been, anyway! I started out as an angelfish!"

The dolphin slowed his swimming as he thought this through. It was impossible, wasn't it? Then again with the way Gabriel was acting, it wasn't that hard to believe that he was the same species as Cas. But there were insane individuals in any species, so that didn't have to mean anything, right?

"Then why are you a clownfish now?" Sam asked, even though it made him want to bang his head against the reef repeatedly. He really shouldn't get into this and he shouldn't encourage the clownfish to go on talking about these impossible and crazy things!

"I ran away from my family, because they have no sense of humor, free will, humor, personal freedom, humor… and have I mentioned humor? 'Cause they are humorless bastards!" Gabriel rambled, swimming right in front of Sam's nose, tickling the dolphin's nose with his tail fin ever so often, "So I hid among the clownfish… and I'm damn good at hiding!"

That was all the explanation he offered for why he was a clownfish, too. It still didn't make sense and it was most surely a lie, but it did have some entertainment value. Sam had decided that he was going to take Gabriel back to his home a while ago, anyway. If nothing else, the clownfish would surely be good for some company while his seahorse brother and their angelfish friend were… busy with other things. The more Sam thought about it, the more he was convinced that the clownfish fit in perfectly with their little ragtag group, anyway.

"Okay, try not to change into a dolphin or a seahorse, if you want to hang out with me and my brother Dean," Sam stated somewhat sarcastically, "You can turn back into an angelfish any time you want, though."

The dolphin had thought that the comment about seahorses might earn him a reaction from the other male, but Gabriel didn't seem fazed at all. Well, maybe the clownfish would have a stronger response once he actually met Dean and Castiel. They were nearly there, anyway.

The seahorse had wrapped his tail around a little ledge at the edge of a cliff while his angelfish lover was floating next to him, only using his flippers to stay in place and let Dean bump against his side every now and then. Sam thought it looked pretty cute when they did that, but he wasn't allowed to say that out loud, of course. His brother had poked him in the eye rather viciously the last time he had made that mistake. It was completely acceptable and not at all emasculating for the seahorse to cuddle Castiel, but it was inacceptable for the dolphin to comment on it. Actually, the angelfish wasn't allowed to comment on it either, at least if he didn't want the cuddling session to end.

"Gabriel, meet my brother Dean," Sam started to introduce them to each other, clearly pointing to the seahorse. The dolphin might be strange enough to completely accept a seahorse as his brother, but he wasn't crazy enough not to realize that looking at it from the outside the angelfish was about as likely to be his brother.

"Pleased to meet you", Gabriel said quickly and swam around Dean and Castiel a couple of times before he made a full stop in front of the angelfish and stared at him for a short moment, "Castiel? Is that you? Oh boy, sure it's you! I'd recognize those blue stripes everywhere!"

The dolphin had to keep himself from snickering when Dean immediately bristled at the stranger giving his lover this much attention. The seahorse released his hold on the ledge and swam between the angelfish and the clownfish, puffing out his chest as much as he could, glaring at Gabriel. This was a clear 'Back off, this one's mine!' sign, but the clownfish seemed to ignore that and only moved a little to the side to look at the angelfish again.

There actually was silence for a few moments before Castiel very uncertainly asked, "Gabriel?"

Dean looked positively murderous and Sam thought he might faint. The crazy clownfish actually had some connections to angelfish then… who'd have thought?


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's note: **Thanks so much to Larkafree, Maknatuna, Tendencia, Impala67-Ilana, Maddy Love Castiel, kb18142, simply anonymous, AngelicZombieCat and MariMagda for last chapter's reviews!

Okay... I couldn't end it here... there will be one more chapter and I hope to get it online in two days... I am however starting a schooling program tomorrow morning and I'm not sure how that'll influence my writing schedule, yet.**  
**

* * *

**3**

The next morning Sam woke up very early and for once not because his brother and his brother's angelfish were figuring out new ways of… being together like he had the past few days. It seemed that Dean's brilliant plan of interspecies mating was to simply mouth Castiel's entire body while the angelfish told him, if he felt anything special. Most of the time their mating sounded a lot like 'No. No. No. No. Still nothing. I think I might feel something. Oh my god!' and that usually was the part where Sam knew he had to get lost quickly, if he didn't want to be scared for life. Well, more scared than he already was, anyway.

That day he was awoken by something else entirely, though. That something was small, had orange and white stripes and was much closer to Sam than it had been when they had retired for the night.

"Uh… Gabe? Watcha doing?" the dolphin asked in a hushed tone, so he wouldn't accidentally wake Dean or Castiel up and prompt their early morning romp in the seaweeds to take place sooner than it usually did.

"'M sleeping," the clownfish replied groggily. He didn't sleep often, but when he did he was basically dead to the world and he insisted on having a safe and comfortable place for it then. He had found something that met both those requirements the previous night and wouldn't have been awake for another long while, if the dolphin hadn't spoken to him.

"Why're you sleeping on my nose?" Sam added after a short moment of silence. He wasn't exactly used to having to ask the clownfish to talk more. He had expected that the other male to tell him the entire story and then some before he even knew what was happening.

"'S comfy," Gabriel sighed and snuggled against the dolphin's nose some more, "Now let me sleep, Samsquatch!"

Sam wasn't exactly sure what to make of the situation, but he didn't actually have to do something here, did he?

"Oh… okay then," the dolphin mumbled, "Sweet dreams!"

It was a couple of hours later that Dean found his brother and the newest addition to their little group of misfits cuddling in their sleep. The seahorse groaned as he swam closer to them. He knew that he was a role model for his little brother, but that didn't mean that Sammy had to go and find himself a clownfish just because Dean had decided to abandon other seahorses in favor of his not so little angelfish.

The seahorse tapped the side of his brother's head with his nose to get the dolphin's attention. This situation needed explaining and it needed explaining now!

"What the hell is going on here?" Dean pretty much yelled. He thought they might as well try to talk about this reasonably before he started to poke people in the eye. Talking was the way of the civilized species, as Sammy liked to say.

Sam jerked awake and catapulted Gabriel off his nose when his head shot up in surprise at being woken up so rudely. If they had been closer to the surface, the clownfish might have gone jumping out of the water involuntarily that moment. As things were, he just floated a few feet over the dolphin until he realized what had just happened and swam down to the two arguing brothers again.

"We were just sleeping, Dean!" Sam answered in a sharp tone. He hardly ever managed to keep completely calm himself when his older brother started with the shouting.

"Oh yeah? Out here for everyone to see?" Dean demanded, obviously not really listening to what the dolphin was telling him. He knew what he had seen and he knew how he interpreted what he had seen and that was all he had to know!

"What's the difference between that and you and Cas screaming for all the ocean to hear?" Sam shot back and got a commendatory poke against the side of his head from the clownfish for it. Gabriel had not yet heard the seahorse and the angelfish go at it, but he was willing to believe that it was an impressive thing to hear from what the dolphin had told him. Not that Sam had used the word impressive to describe it.

"The difference is," Dean started to yell before he had to stop himself very abruptly, because he had no idea how to end that sentence. In the end he just moved his side flippers in small circles, fighting for the right words, "Cas is… Cas… and Gabriel is… not… and you are… my little brother!"

Gabriel actually stopped swimming around for a short moment and stared at the seahorse silently. Of course, it wasn't longer than a second or two before the clownfish just burst into laughter. That had to be the worst try to make a point he had ever heard!

"That's not funny, asshat!" Dean shouted and tried to poke the clownfish in the eye or just hit any body part he could reach, really. The stupid orange fish just wouldn't stand still long enough to make that possible, though!

"No, it's hilarious," Gabriel replied, still chuckling and easily dodging the seahorse's attacks, "You realize that we are all sexually mature fish and one mammal here, right? And you shouldn't be the one to complain about inter-species relationships anyway, bucko!"

The seahorse finally succeeded in poking the stupid clownfish between the eyes. Sam quickly separated the two much smaller beings and glared at them both. Yeah, Dean had no right to complain about anything that might or might not happen, but Gabriel had no right whatsoever to declare that he and Sam were in any kind of relationship! The clownfish had slept on his nose for a couple of hours. Nothing more had happened, for crying out loud!

"Calm down, Dean. Gabriel just wanted some company for the night. It's not like we were doing anything," the dolphin told his brother reasonably. Sure, he shouldn't have to explain himself to the seahorse, but he knew how easy it was to enrage Dean and there was no chance for a sensible talk as long as he was as annoyed as he was.

"Yet," Gabriel added unhelpfully.

"What?" both Sam and Dean asked, though the seahorse was the one of them who was being louder and more indignant about it.

"Do you want me to draw you a picture?" the clownfish suggested with a lewd grin, "I could make it a really good one as soon as I find a sandbank around here!"

Dean looked scandalized and about to poke someone in the eye again when Castiel suddenly showed up and swam around his partner to rub against him a little before he stopped next to him, trying to figure out what all the yelling was about. He wasn't really good with judging situations, though. The most likely scenario he could come up with, taking the things he had heard into account, was that the clownfish had offered to draw something for the brothers and the two of them had different opinions about what the drawing should be of.

"I am sure any picture would be nice," Castiel offered his opinion, not quite understanding why everyone was looking at him like he had just said something wrong.

"Cassy… who'd have thought? You're a dirty, _dirty_ little fishy!" Gabriel stated and added a little growl at the end of his statement for effect. Yeah, the angelfish probably had just misinterpreted the part of the conversation he had heard, but it still was too funny and the clownfish was never one to let anyone get away with anything.

Dean immediately tried his best to poke Gabriel in the eye again, but the clownfish had been prepared for something like that and dodged the attacks quickly and very efficiently. Oh, he didn't swim away from the seahorse. He stayed exactly where he was, close enough for Dean to try and then try some more, but he avoided getting poked and enjoyed how annoyed the seahorse got because of it.

Sam quickly ushered the clownfish away from his brother and the angelfish with a muttered, "I'll introduce you to Bobby."

Dean was positively seething. He didn't exactly see red, he saw orange and that was somehow even worse! He actually considered ratting Gabriel out to those clownfish who had been hunting him the other day, but that seemed a little too extreme. Not to mention that Sammy would probably hate him unreasonably for that.

"I don't understand," Castiel admitted. Whatever had just happened had annoyed Dean very much, but he didn't understand why. Well, he didn't understand what had happened, in the first place. The angelfish allowed his partner to wrap his tail around the part of his body directly before his tail fin and transported them back toward the sea weeds.

"That stupid clown is no good for Sammy," Dean grumbled and released Cas' tail again to hold on to one of the sea weeds instead. He stayed very close to the angelfish, so their side flippers were brushing every now and then, though.

"Gabriel might be very immature and infuriating at times, but he is not as bad as you think right now, Dean," Castiel stated thoughtfully, "And you keep telling me how intelligent Sam is. I believe he knows what he is doing."

The seahorse snorted, but gave a tight nod all the same. Besides, if Gabriel should ever hurt his brother then Dean could poke his eyes out and Sammy could make an exception to his strictly vegetarian diet and eat the fucker.

"You're right, Cas," Dean replied, giving a quick, loving peck to the side of his partner's head, "It's just that love makes people blind and dumb."

"My eyesight seems to be perfect," Castiel pondered out loud, swimming a little closer to the seahorse still, "However, I am often feeling like an imbecile around you."

Dean wasn't exactly sure if the angelfish had just made a joke, or if he honestly hadn't understood that the seahorse hadn't meant it quite that literally, but the meaning behind the words was the same, anyway.

"Love you too, angel," Dean stated honestly.

Minutes later the seahorse came to the conclusion that it could be worse than his little brother dating that clownfish, if it came that far. He really couldn't remember why he had thought it was that much of a bad idea to begin with, actually. Then again, as long as Castiel kept doing what he was doing the Apocalypse could have happened around them and Dean wouldn't have been able to say why that was such a bad thing.

* * *

"Hey Chuck, have you seen Bobby around?" Sam asked the hermit crab he had just spotted between the rocks. The little animal nearly jumped and it didn't help him with calming down that the clownfish was swimming up to him like he wanted to abduct or eat him. It also didn't help that Chuck squealed terrified every time Gabriel swam up to him and only encouraged the fish to do it again and again with it.

"Funny little dude," the clownfish chuckled and swam back to his dolphin, "He a friend of yours?"

"Yeah, Chuck collects stories," Sam explained, trying to keep Gabriel from swimming back to the poor hermit crab. Chuck had probably had enough excitement for the day, already.

"Does he now? That's cool. How many does he have?" the clownfish asked the dolphin, because the hermit crab seemed rather frozen and probably wouldn't be that great to talk to. Gabriel required quick answers to his questions, though. If the answers took too long he lost the interest in the questions before he ever heard the answers and that was a pity every time it happened. Well, the clownfish supposed it was a pity, anyway. It wasn't like he'd still be interested in them once that point had been reached.

"Actually, he only ever talks to me and Dean, so only ours," Sam replied before he turned his attention back to the little crab, "So, Chuck, have you seen Bobby?"

The hermit crab backed up to the next big stone he could find, still eyeing the clownfish suspiciously. Once he was sure that his dolphin friend would keep the orange plague away from him he pointed into the direction he had seen the old turtle swim into earlier.

"Thanks, Chuck!" Sam smiled and swam off into the direction the crab had indicated with Gabriel swimming next to him.

"Chuck's a good guy, Gabe. You shouldn't harass him!" the dolphin stated a couple moments later, but when he wanted to see if his words had left any sort of impression on the clownfish he found that Gabriel was gone.

"Boo!" the clownfish yelled, loud enough for the dolphin to hear over the distance. Chuck's answering squeal was loud enough to be heard, as well.


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's note: **Thanks so much to Larkafree, Maknatuna, Tendencia, Maddy Love Castiel, CassXDeano, kb18142, Keefer and AngelicZombieCat for last chapter's reviews! You guys are awesome!

Okay... so this is the end of another one of my animal AUs. Thanks to everyone who read it! I hope you enjoyed it! Maybe you could take the time to drop me a short note, it really would make my day!**  
**

* * *

**4**

"Hey Bobby!" Sam called happily as soon as he spotted the old green sea turtle with the slightly cracked shell not too far away from them.

"He's basically like a father to me and Dean," the dolphin added, hoping that the clownfish understood that he was meant to behave around the turtle. It was highly questionable if Gabriel was even capable of being polite, though.

"You've got the craziest family I've ever come across, gigantor," the clownfish commented. Not that he thought that was anything but great. Really, how often did you meet people who had seahorse brothers and turtle fathers?

"It's a great family," Sam muttered defensively, swimming on faster and leaving Gabriel behind. He had wondered at what part the clownfish would start to comment on how weird they all were. He had taken the seahorse brother in a stride, but of course the turtle father figure might just be going one step too far. Typical, just as Sam had started to like him!

"Never said it wasn't," Gabriel stated, but he was quite sure that the dolphin couldn't hear him over the distance anymore. Boy, Sam sure was touchy, wasn't he?

"Good to see you, boy," Bobby greeted the dolphin, finding a good place to rest so they could talk comfortably. He hadn't seen the boys in about two weeks, so he was sure there was a lot to speak about. There usually was when one of them came to see him.

"I thought I'd introduce you to Gabriel. He's probably going to stick around for a while," the dolphin explained, sounding not quite as enthusiastic about that as he would have about two minutes earlier, but looking back to see if the clownfish had caught up with him yet, anyway, "There's someone else for you to meet too, but I guess he and Dean will have to get out of the seaweeds long enough to actually have a longer conversation or go anywhere before that happens."

"Ah, your brother is playing for the other team now?" the sea turtle asked calmly. It came as a bit of a surprise, but then again Dean was hardly ever doing things others would expect from him and as long as the seahorse was happy Bobby was fine with nearly everything.

"You have no idea, Bobby," Sam snickered, "The other team and another species. He scored himself an angelfish!"

"Castiel is one of the better ones of the entire lot, though," Gabriel threw his two cents in. He had caught up with the dolphin a while ago – just in time to be introduced to the turtle, actually – but had kept quiet, so he wouldn't anger his big friend any further before he had had the chance to calm down completely again, in the first place. He was swimming little circles around the two other males, however.

"It's been barely two weeks and you two idjits already turn your lives inside out," Bobby groaned, but there was no heat behind his words. Okay, so not a male seahorse but a male angelfish. It wasn't like that changed anything, really.

"What? I haven't done anything!" Sam insisted vehemently. He had to admit that he might not have been this upset about the implications of Bobby's last statement, if his brothers hadn't accused him of the same thing earlier and if Gabriel hadn't been an ass just a minute ago, though.

"Yet," Gabriel added unhelpfully.

The dolphin growled deeply and swam away. He suddenly had a strong craving for clownfish, but he'd probably hate himself forever if he gave in to it. Instead he decided to swim around the reef to calm down. Bobby would know how to handle Gabriel he was sure.

"You have a way of infuriating the boy," Bobby commented, looking at the clownfish in that meaningful way Gabriel thought only sea turtles had mastered.

"I didn't do anything!" the clownfish insisted, "Okay, I might have cuddled up to him while he was sleeping and then I might have picked a fight with his brother. It is also possible that I annoyed the hell out of his friend Chuck and maybe I sort of implied that the family structures here were crazy, but other than that I didn't do anything!"

That Sam had been in an attack from clownfish because of Gabriel didn't count! The dolphin had never been in any sort of danger and that could have happened to him any other day, too.

"Clearly, he is just overreacting," Bobby replied sarcastically, pulling his head back until it nearly disappeared in his shell, waiting for Gabriel to swim closer to him again before he stretched his head back out quickly and knocked the clownfish in the head none too gently.

Gabriel was swimming in circles for a few long moments, trying to just move through the pain. He wasn't quite sure how he had deserved the attack, but it looked like this member of the little ragtag family didn't need to be prompted to explain, at least.

"Listen to me and listen to me closely, bucko," Bobby demanded, sighing before he spoke on, "Seahorses don't care for their young, but Dean… Dean has always been different. He needed to care for someone and be cared about and he found this very young dolphin who had been abandoned by his pod and coaxed him into following him home when he himself was still very young. I happened to be around then and helped them figure out how things could work out for them."

Gabriel nodded, listening closely but making sure that there was enough of a distance between him and the turtle to prevent any new surprise attacks. You never knew what the old guy might do, if he saw a reaction he didn't like, after all!

"It ain't easy being different though and most of the fish around looked down on all of us for being weird. Dean never minded too much, because he was happier with his newfound brother than he had been ever before and I was already old then and didn't give a clam's ass for the opinion of others. Sam always wanted to fit in, though. Damn, he even learned to appreciate a vegetarian diet just so he didn't have to eat any of the fish around, but it wasn't like they accepted him any more for it. They stopped commenting over time though, old news and all that," Bobby went on, noticing with some satisfaction that the clownfish had even started to swim around like he was having a seizure during the last part of the story, "Then you come along and do your best to alienate the very few people that he even has and call us all crazy."

"But I didn't even mean it in a bad way. I enjoy crazy! I live for crazy!" Gabriel protested, swimming up and down in front of the turtle's face as if he thought that that would put more weight behind his words. He had to admit that he had a basic understanding of where he had gone wrong now, at least.

"You tell him that," the turtle stated and pointed his chin toward the dolphin who was swimming back toward them. The boy really could use some more friends and if he too wanted to give up on his own species then Bobby wouldn't lose a negative word about it, either.

"Hey Sambo, glad to see you're back," Gabriel said cheerily and bumped his side against the dolphin's head, "Your father is a great guy."

Sam had already been much calmer when he had decided to return, but those words were still very welcome. Maybe not all hope was lost with the clownfish, after all.

The three of them had a nice little chat about Dean and Castiel and currents for a while, even if Gabriel couldn't keep still for longer than a second. It turned out that he could be quite a good conversational partner despite that, however. The clownfish was more intelligent than he let on.

"Uh-oh… here we go again," Sam suddenly whispered, looking toward a big seemingly black thing that was moving toward them. As it came closer it turned out that it was just a dark red octopus, though.

Bobby groaned deeply, but seemed resigned to his fate even as the dolphin ushered the clownfish away until they found a rock to hide behind. Gabriel, of course, peeked around their hiding place nearly the entire time. This was something that he – other than the dolphin – hadn't seen before, after all.

"That's Crowley," Sam explained in a hushed tone, "He likes to call himself a devilfish and he has this strange fixation on Bobby."

Gabriel bit back the comment that of course the devilfish had a thing for the turtle who was the father of a seahorse and a dolphin. He didn't want to offend Sam yet again, especially now that he knew why the dolphin was so touchy.

"Hello, darling," Crowley greeted Bobby in a smooth voice, floating ever closer to the turtle until one of his tentacles was resting on his shell, "Have you thought about my offer?"

The turtle would have shaken the tentacle off, if it had been possible. Sometimes being a turtle sucked balls or sea urchins even.

"I'm still not making a deal with you," Bobby growled, moving a little too the right, even though that only made the octopus move with him and hold on to him a little harder.

"Think about it, love," Crowley piped nearly tenderly, "All the plants you could want, from all around the world and it takes just one little kiss."

Gabriel nudged Sam repeatedly and looked at him clearly demanding an explanation for what they were seeing. He had seen many strange things and he had done many even stranger things, but this was something he just didn't understand. It looked interesting enough to be worth knowing, though.

"Crowley thinks that he could prolong his own life, if he got Bobby's soul," Sam whispered. He wasn't quite sure how the octopus – or devilfish as he called himself – thought that would work, but it wasn't like the insane needed reasons for anything.

"Gotcha, sucking his soul right out of him with a kiss," Gabriel replied, swimming around in jerky motions once more, even though he was still watching the scene unfold, "I wonder what he thinks he'd get for a proper b…"

A very horrified look from the dolphin kept the clownfish from talking on, however.

"If you put it like that," Bobby was just saying, slightly turning toward the octopus, "I think I want to make that deal, after all."

Crowley was positively beaming and wrapped a few more of his tentacles around the sea turtle to pull him closer. However, before the octopus could kiss Bobby he quickly retracted his head and stayed like that no matter how much the devilfish tried to talk him into coming back out.

"Your father rocks!" Gabriel commented appreciatively as he swam back to the part of the reef where Castiel and Dean were next to Sam and over Sam and under Sam and on the other side of Sam, depending on his latest spur of the moment decision about the location he wanted to be in. The one permanent thing about his preferred positions seemed to be that Sam had to be there.

"Yeah, Bobby's great," the dolphin agreed, swimming a bit faster so his little hyperactive companion wouldn't get too bored. The closer they came to their home the more it became apparent that the seahorse and the angelfish were still – or again – experimenting.

"I'm pretty sure I wouldn't need so much trial and error with you, Sammy-boy," Gabriel commented in a lewd tone, rubbing up to the dolphin for a moment before he gave him some space again, "And I won't even take your soul for a kiss or that blowjob I mentioned."

"Gabe," Sam started but was promptly interrupted by the clownfish who swam directly in front of his eyes, so he could look at him seriously.

"I don't know how it happened, but I hatched from a clownfish egg that somehow got between a bunch of angelfish eggs," Gabriel told the dolphin in a soft tone, "I know damn well what it's like to never feel like you belong, but I also know that I want to belong next to you from now on and I won't ever abandon you."

That night Dean came damn close to yelling at his brother and that stupid clownfish to keep it down and go to bed already, but then Castiel found that spot he had discovered earlier that day again and the seahorse's shouts were of a different kind altogether.

And they all lived happily ever after…


End file.
